THE GREAT IRON SHIP

PROFILE of the Great Eastern, the biggest ship in the world at the time of its launching in 1858. In 1862, the Great Eastern, on a voyage from Liverpool to N.Y. struck an unchartered reef outside of the Montauk Light and ripped a hole in its outer hull 86 feet long and as much as 9 feet wide. She made Flushing Bay where she was anchored. A month later Edward S. Renwick presented the Great Eastern's representatives here with a scheme for repairing the damage. The job was considered an impossibility because there was no drydock large enough to take the monster. Edward S. Renqick belonged to a distinguished N.Y. family. His father, Prof. James Renwick, of Columbia University, had written the first extensive American treatise on natural philosophy, and his brother James was the country's leading architect, having designed St. Patrick's Cathedral, Grace Church, the Smithsonian Institution, and the original structure for Vassar College.